Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

Well, we know what the Greens actually want to do. The Greens want to ban all live export, and we know what a lot of the organisations that the Greens have quoted in their justifications for this disallowance actually stand for, and that is to end all livestock industries. If you are quoting from the Alliance for Animals or Voiceless or Animals Australia, you are really scratching at the anti-livestock-industry's barrel. But, as Senator Farrell quite rightly said, disallowing this instrument will lead to worse outcomes. Disallowing this instrument will also disallow new animal welfare standards, and, let's face it, Australia's live export industry now has the best animal health and welfare standards in the world, bar none.

Since 2018, the former Liberal-National government, working with industry, with the veterinarians and with the department, developed some of the strongest animal welfare standards in the world. We have used new technologies, where we can now actually count the amount of pants per minute a sheep does. We have decreased the amount of sheep per pen on boats. We have constant monitoring. Every ship has to have an accredited vet on a long-haul journey. And we have significantly improved animal health outcomes. But the Greens don't accept that. While the Greens say we've got to listen to science, 'listen to science', they only want you to listen to science that supports their argument. They don't want you to listen to the many vets who have seen the improvements in animal health and welfare standards that we have put in place since, yes, that dreadful, dreadful event on the Awassi Express, which Senator Faruqi mentioned. But that was four years ago. We can't live in the past. We've got to move forward.

The other issue that disallowing these amendments would create is that we would just be exporting our problem. I can promise you that the countries we export to, the countries that culturally and practically rely on a live animal market, will look elsewhere. They won't go, 'Oh, Australia is not going to send us sheep anymore, so we'll pick up the phone and order a couple of boxes of frozen meat.' They won't do that, because it doesn't work in their countries, it doesn't work for their culture sometimes, and it's not practical. Some countries don't have refrigeration. They don't have easy access, like we do, to a Coles or a Woolworths, so it's not practical for them. So they will go elsewhere to fill that live market gap, and that elsewhere will have worse animal health standards.

But this is typical of the Greens. The Greens are very much 'not in my backyard'. They're like, 'As long as we don't see it and we don't do it here in Australia, then it's all good.' It's like their stance a few years ago that we shouldn't grow rice in this country. Someone else will have to grow the rice that we grow to feed the world, but that's okay. Because it's not happening here, it's not our problem. It is a bit like former Leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, with his NIMBY stance on wind farms, 'I want the world to move towards renewable energy, but not if you're putting a wind farm off the coast of Tasmania, because that's too close to home for the Greens.' That's what the Greens mentality is.

I must commend Senator Farrell and the way he outlined the position of Labor on this disallowance motion, and I must commend Labor for their stance on this motion. But I also must highlight that Labor are still threatening our live export with the closure of the sheep industry, particularly impacting Western Australia, although they say 'not this term'. Well, I hope they use this term of government to get on the ground, to talk to the live export industry in Western Australia and to really understand what closing that industry would do. I hope Labor learnt from the debacle of the closure of the live export industry under the Gillard government, which saw a very successful class action and record payouts having to go back to the farmers, who were absolutely crippled due to an ill-conceived reaction, instead of working with industry, which is what our government did after the Awassi Express. The Liberals and Nationals in government worked with industry to identify the problems, to find solutions, to implement the solutions, to regulate the solutions and to make sure that we became now the envy of the world.

When we are talking about the live export industry, it's not just the ship owners and it's not just the sheep producers; we're also talking about the truckies, we are also talking about the wharfies and we are also talking about the stock men and women. You need go no further than the Young Live Exporters Network, which have shining examples and case studies of men and women from around Australia who are proud to work in the live export industry, who are proud to say that they are very concerned about animal health and welfare standards and who are proud to know that their industry strives every day to improve those standards. We can't rest on our laurels. We did a lot from 2018 to today. We have done an awful lot to improve standards, but that doesn't mean that we're stopping or that the industry will now throw their hands up and go, 'That's it; there's no more to do.' Every day they are working to make sure we continue to have the best record for animal health and wellbeing in the live export industry. The work we have done and the work industry has done on new developments in heat stress management for the live export of sheep should always be considered as it becomes available. This is what I mean when I say industry is constantly striving and working, to the point that we now have the lowest mortality rates in sheep export ever.

When people say the live export industry is in decline, I beg to differ, because in March 2022 the forecast export value for this financial year was $107 million. That's a pretty impressive figure. But that's going to grow to $119 million for the 2022-23 financial year, and that was before any ban was proposed. The northern summer hemisphere trade is important, particularly to Western Australia, where the majority of this annual live export is met. Industry believes live export is key to the preservation of the entire Western Australian sheep industry, and there is a huge demand for those sheep from Western Australia in the Middle East. As I said, this demand is not only on the cultural basis but also on the basis they don't have the cold storage facilities. This is about food security in these nations, this is about food security across the world and it's also about industry security here at home. If the live sheep export industry was shut down then countries with poorer animal welfare standards will fill the void and take Australia's market share.

I implore the chamber not to export our problems, not to push issues offshore and then pretend it doesn't happen but to work with industry and with our trading partners. The other thing that a ban ignores is we have people onshore in our trading markets working with the purchasers of our animals to ensure that our animal welfare standards go from Australia to the ship, to the port where they are exported to and even into the markets because that is our commitment to animal health and welfare. So I implore the chamber: don't export our problems. Don't hide your head in the sand and think that if it's offshore—out of sight, out of mind—it doesn't happen.

We have a responsibility as a trader. We have a responsibility to our international friends and colleagues to make sure that we retain not only the best animal health and wellbeing statistics but also that we do our bit to feed the world and we don't do it ignoring cultural and practical issues.

We will not be supporting this motion in any way, shape or form. I am pleased to hear that nor will the government. I urge the rest of the chamber to not support this disallowance.